50th Anniverasry CB400/4 Feature in CBG

[Laverda Dave]

I agree Ash. There is a hell of a lot of 'recycling' going on of articles in all bike mags these days but I guess that because modern day stuff just doesn't do it unless it's expensive Ducati's and suchlike. What is refreshing to see though is the classic bike magazines are now beginning to focus on 80' bikes and not the previous staple diet of Goldies and Bonnie's from the 50's & 60’s . They obviously have to chase the shifting demographic. But yes, as usual DSS is asked about vintage Honda spares and it's a blatant plug. What a shame there was no mention of any other specialists in the article!
What do you think about the bikes featured, the Read Titan was a bit different although apart from the fairing and colour it was stock. The blue and yellow bikes are both very nice as well.
I'm a bit confused now though about the finish on the quadrant of the clutch housing, both the blue and yellow bikes are supposed to be 100% stock but the quadrant is polished whereas the rest of the case is painted, do you know in your experience if the quadrant is painted or polished?

[TrickyMicky]

Y'know, I have to admit that I am slightly biased re. DSS.  I purchased my 400 in 1988, so I am just about getting used to it now. Within a short period, due to my poor storage conditions, it needed a new camchain, new camshaft, and a few rockers. My local dealer in Dagenham at the time did not hold much hope of getting the parts through the official channels.  He gave me the phone number of a chap that had set up a business of buying new/old stock from Hinda dealers.  A quick phone call resulted in me receiving what I needed using the good old fashioned COD method, Remember that???  This man eventually set up a large warehouse in Suffolk, and 22 years ago I moved house to Suffolk, meaning that he is just a 25 minute ride away along some marvellous roads. For my sins, over the past few years, I have played with a couple of obscure Hondas, an American import CL160, along with a 500cc Bacterian Camel, known as an XBR500. During this period, I had the chance to see inside the warehouse, and the amount of stuff carried is bloody ginormous, and for a vast array of Honda models, not just our beloved 400's.  I would imagine, that much of this stuff is not very fast moving off the shelf, and remember, if it's on the shelf, then it ain't in the bank. I remember working in a motor parts distribution warehouse, and seeing the look of glee on a customer's face when he realised that you stocked a very rare part, and the subject of discount was not even mentioned.  In a moment of madness, 2 years ago I bought a GB250 Japanese domestic market only model, some of the bits are common to other models so DSS have been able to help out.  I needed an air filter, the only place that had one was Megazip in Japan, now, if you want ultra expensive along with unbelievable postage costs, that's the place to go.  Regarding magazine articles, I'm old enough to remember the theatrical claims that were published some years ago, so, lots of stuff is re-gurgitated to make column-inches.  This is why we need good forums such as this one.  The rain is getting warmer, so it must be summer, stay safe everyone. Mike.

[AshimotoK0]

Y'know, I have to admit that I am slightly biased re. DSS. 

I think possibly everyone here (but Trigger will deny it outright  ) owes a lot to DS ... I bought from him in 1986 when he was first advertising in Motor Cycle News and frankly a lot of the rare NOS parts I have had have come from him directly or indirectly ... i.e. time after time you buy NOS parts and it turns out their last source was from DS years ago. He's also a nice bloke if you meet him in person. I just wish he would give a club discount and review his postage charge policy though. You jump suddenly from a reasonable  postage charge about 3 quid plus VAT to £7.50 plus VAT for often a tiny jiffy bag of parts with the goods themselves being less than £25. I also think that the imported bikes DS sells are very reasonably priced and some of them are in pretty amazing original condition ... without rare parts being robbed from them like the likes of DK do.
The problem with those articles though is they mostly don't  mention  sources of parts other than DS or CMS. For instance ..how about Yamiya in Japan or Julie on here. My best advice if you are restoring a 750 or 400 is get yourself a friend in Japan. ..that's what I did yonks ago. Some of the stuff on Yahoo Japan is amazingly rare and sometimes goes for a bargain price. If you want to access Yahoo.jp directly though (instead of a 3rd party company like Jauce) then you have to use a VPN and set your location to Tokyo, Japan.